Interesting timing - to have the bogus BCS title game the day before the next step in the grand spectacle known as American politics. I suggest that both syustems are broken and need to be fixed.
The BCS is all about money - schools jockey for a BCS bowl game each year for the not insubstantial financial stipend that goes to each school for participating. The more prestigious the bowl the higher the payout. BCS payouts according to Wikipedia are $18,000,000.00. Non-BCS payouts range from 6.5M (Cotton bowl) down to .75M for several games that usually pit a pair of teams with as many losses as they have wins.
BCS teams come from the cryptic ranking system currently in place and coaches freely admit to being less than honest when bowl season comes around and BCS rankings and therefore bowl games and payouts are at stake.
That is of course the Cliff's Notes version of the BCS but it segues nicely into the election season currently just leaving the gate, Iowa already being in the books and New Hampshire voting today for the Republicans.
Don't misunderestimate me. Ahem - thanks for that one Dubya. Our election system is the best one out there at the moment, we just keep screwing it up by electing the same clowns over and over. We have made politics a profession. We keep people in office often times until they can retire and become highly paid lobbyists or run corporations. They keep fat government pensions that we pay for, take advantage of the contacts they developed over time and then influence legislation to benefit those corporations. I mean WTF - isn't it the American way??? Improve yourself? get rich?
Clearly this is barely a sound-bite commentary on American politics and there is much more to come. I just pondered the similarities between a flawed college football rating system and its payouts with a career in American politics and its big payouts. Where else but in America could a former politician run a company that requires signifiicant political ties internationally, ascend to another even higher political office and then make that companies shareholders even wealthier when said company becomes an active participant - for profit - in international conflict. Hells bells - one of the contestants in today's current New Hampshire contest spent recent years lobbying for substantial fees but feels his calling as an idea man is to run the country instead. Want to bet his lobbying fees go even higher when he inevitably loses??
So yes indeed I am saying that Americam politics are all about money. The Supreme Court says so. They say Corporations have the constitutional right to influence politics. And Corporations exist for one reason - to make money. There will be more on this subject later.
All politics everywhere is about money. We have clowns here who will put your best to shame. Here is something else about foot ball that should amuse you.
ReplyDelete"I know they call it football, but really, did Alabama have to take it so literally?"
~ PAUL WHITEFIELD,
in an L.A. Times column, noting the predominance of field goals in the Crimson Tide's 21-0 shutout victory over the LSU Tigers in the Bowl Championship Series final on Monday
This seems like the inevitable track of capitalism. It is unfortunate that other systems don't work with the current state of human development, but they don't.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I don't think I ever told you, but ... I'm your old buddy who isn't Jerry from Hayward reincarnated.